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Dessert

Mock Mince Pie

A pie made with crushed crackers, water, vinegar, molasses, sugar, currants, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Mock Mince Pie

Why it works: Currant and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Mock Mince Pie

four pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the crushed crackers, hot water, vinegar, molasses, sugar, currants, raisins, and spices, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into pie crusts to make four pies.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Crackers
Crushed crackers provide the bulk and body that stands in for the meat in the filling.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a rich, deep flavour to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling set and brown during baking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness of the molasses and sugar.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness throughout the filling.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The filling thickens as it bakes and cools, so pulling it too early leaves it runny and it can soak the crust. Baking until the centre is set ensures a sliceable pie.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, molasses, sugar, raisin):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Currantthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, molasses, sugar, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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